2023-11-13 20:20:46
The new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson unveiled a plan to avoid the financial paralysis of the federal administration. But the discord in his own camp could cause him to fail.
In Washington, the holiday season is often accompanied by a battle in Congress to avoid a “shutdown”. The season which is opening is no exception to the rule. American elected officials from both houses have until Friday November 17 at midnight to find a budget agreement, otherwise federal government funding will be cut. These are then 1.5 million civil servants who will be deprived of wages, not to mention the closure of national parks and the disruption of air traffic.
This weekend, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, elected Republican from Louisiana Mike Johnson, revealed an unusual two-step financing plan. A first step would extend funding for certain administrative sectors until January 19. The second stage would extend funding for the remaining sectors until February 2. But this complex plan, which does not contain aid for Ukraine or Israel, is not certain to be voted on.
The Republican majority, weighed down on its right by a handful of elected extremists allergic to compromise, is often too short-sighted to adopt a text alone. The previous head of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has already paid the price for this discord in his camp. By joining forces at the last minute with the Democrats to avoid a first “shutdown” at the end of Septemberhe had provoked the anger of the “MAGA” camp (Make America Great Again, Donald Trump’s slogan) and had lost his “speaker” hammer.
Balancing act
This week is therefore a test for Mike Johnson, who was still unknown to the general public a few weeks ago, and who lacks experience in navigating this type of negotiations on Capitol Hill. If he accepts all the demands of the “MAGA” camp – of which he is a member – to pass a text, he ensures that it is rejected in the Senate, where the Democrats have a narrow majority. And if on the contrary he does concessions to Democratshe could suffer the same fate as his predecessor Kevin McCarthy: impeachment.
The Democratic leaders have not yet indicated what their voting instructions would be, but seemed to appreciate the absence of budget cuts in the speaker’s proposal.
“I am not the architect of the mess we find ourselves in,” Mike Johnson pleaded with his peers when presenting his plan on Saturday, according to him “necessary to place House Republicans in the best possible position to defend the victories of the conservatives. With this text, he attempts a balancing act. The two-step formula was favored by the “MAGA” camp, but this group of elected officials did not obtain the big budget cuts that they also demanded. Result: Republican representatives Bob Good, Warren Davidson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Chip Roy, George Santos and Scott Perry have already warned that they will not support this plan.
All eyes are therefore on the Democratic leaders in the House, who also have no interest in taking responsibility for a “shutdown”. They have not yet indicated what their voting instructions would be, but seemed to appreciate the absence of budget cuts in the speaker’s proposal.
The White House, for its part, considered that it was a “recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns, period”. A statement that is part of the same strategy as that adopted by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign: present the camp of his rival Donald Trump as that of chaos and extremism. A winning strategy in 2020, but perhaps not sufficient next year, if the latest polls are to be believed.
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